Moneymakeover To save or invest or where to go.

[JimmydIRE]

Personal details
Your age:48
Your spouse's age: 47
Number and age of children: 2, 5yrs and 9yrs old

Income and expenditure
Annual gross income from employment or profession:
Wife net €220 per week, Me Net €670 per week
Wife on invalidity pension due to work injury.
Me: Annual bonus of €3K per year with €1500 of that received via Clever cards

Type of employment Employee
Employer type: private company.

Summary of Assets and Liabilities
Family home value: €400K
Mortgage on family home: No, Paid.

Cash:
Defined Contribution pension fund: None
Company shares : None
Buy to Let Property value: None
Buy to let Mortgage: None

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc None
Life Insurance :No

 

[JimmydIRE]

Other savings and investments:

Wife €80K savings in bank

My savings: €18K saved for kid’s college (Saving €150 per month towards this), €20K in a bank of Ireland WEB ADVANTAGE 24MTH 25% ACCESS, €16K in current account with BOI and €20K in a credit union account. Total for me savings is €74K

 

[JimmydIRE]

We are in a good situation but neither of us has a pension, too late now I assume to start but we have good savings.

I am saving €150 per month towards colleage for the 2 kids - Is this enough ?

Wondering what we could do to make our savings work for us but we dont like risk.

 

[ClubMan]

neither of us has a pension, too late now I assume to start

Not at all.

Personal details
Your age:48
Your spouse's age: 47

Your retirement timeframe is probably c. 20 years away and your overall investment timeframe could be several decades more after that - or even longer if you intend to leave something in your will to your children or others.

Annual gross income from employment or profession:

You should state your individual and combined gross and net to assist others to give useful feedback.

Other savings and investments:

Wife €80K savings in bank

My savings: €18K saved for kid’s college (Saving €150 per month towards this), €20K in a bank of Ireland WEB ADVANTAGE 24MTH 25% ACCESS, €16K in current account with BOI and €20K in a credit union account. Total for me savings is €74K

So €156K in savings altogether?
Having all of this on deposit (?) isn't really a good idea.

I am saving €150 per month towards colleage for the 2 kids - Is this enough ?

If they are likely to stay at home while attending college then you may well benefit from SUSI grants where the eligibility criteria are based purely on reckonable income and not means testing of other assets.

Irish Times - "[SUSI] Grants extended to students with household incomes of up to €115K"

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2025/04/03/grants-extended-to-students-with-household-incomes-of-up-to-115000/ (Not paywalled for me at the moment...) https://www.susi.ie/news/susi-is-now-open-for-new-applications-for-academic-year-202526/

www.askaboutmoney.com